Objects & Places from Backlash: The Undeclared War against American Women

The Contenders

This name was coined by a survey organization to describe the youngest of the baby-boom males who lose the most in the economic downturn, who fear and revile feminism, who are bitter change resisters, and who readily accept the backlash's message.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

Created by Congress in the 1970s to deal with sexual discrimination, this agency begins investigating Sears, Roebuck & Company and finds major disparities in pay, hiring, and promotion.

The Equal Rights Amendment

This law is finally adopted by Congress in 1971-72; however, a handful of powerful men in three state legislatures defeat the law because they believe women should serve their husbands.

The Harvard-Yale Marriage Study

This project originally finds that women at age thirty have only a twenty percent chance of marrying, dropping to five percent at thirty-five, and 1.3 percent at forty. Other researchers rerun...